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Congress swings into action against demonetisation in Uttarakhand

Statesman News Service | Dehradun | November 21, 2016 7:07 am

Congress leaders staging 'Dharna' in Dehradun on Sunday (Photo: SNS)

The Uttarakhand Congress has finally decided to do something against the Narendra Modi government’s decision to demonetise 1,000 and 500 rupee banknotes.

Adopting a cautious approach so far, and asking party workers to provide drinking water and other help to people standing in bank queue, the party staged a dharna in Dehradun on Sunday.

With state assembly elections due early next year, the Congress party calculated all factors before launching the protest.

State party chief Kishore Upadhyay staged a symbolic one-day ‘Dharna’ near the Uttarakhand Governor’s residence in Dehradun on Sunday.

Terming the central government’s move immature, Kishore Upadhyay said, “The Prime Minister took the decision in a haste and it has created chaos in the country. The move has hit Uttarakhand hard and the hill state has suffered a loss of Rs.500 crore. The Central government should compensate for the loss recurred by the Uttarakhand government after demonetisation.”

After demonetisation came into force, Uttarakhand Congress was merely involved in issuing statement for the media on the issue.

But, on Sunday they staged protest to add some action.

The Uttarakhand Congress submitted a memorandum to President of India Pranab Mukherjee asking him to suggest some ways to the Central Government from coming out of the crisis situation arising after demonetisation.

Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat too had a meeting with officers of the state government in Dehradun on Sunday.

The chief minister discussed ways about reducing problems faced by the hill people after demonetisation. Rawat has instructed health department officers to provide free medical tests for three months in government hospitals. Such facilities is in operation in Uttarakhand for card holders of CM Health Scheme, but now it will cover even the non-card holders.

Rawat has also instructed the electricity department to provide relief to farmers by permit them to pay fifty percent of their electric bill now and rest later on.